The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
by Dante Alighieri
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dante AlighieriEditor: Robin Kirkpatrick
Translator: Robin Kirkpatrick
Introduction: Robin Kirkpatrick
Commentary: Robin Kirkpatrick
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-29
ISBN: 0954113284
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin Classics) (Pt. 1)
Book Review: A good new translation
Summary: 5 Stars
Kirkpatrick's translation of the first book of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' is the latest of a series of Penguin editions of Dante's works. It has a good commentary and introduction to the text.
Dante of course really needs no introduction. He is in my view the Western world's finest poet between Virgil and Shakspeare. His visionary genius, incredible intellect and ability to see and integrate several aspects of the medieval world view as a whole are unmatched by any writer or poet of the medieval era. He is the poetic equivalent of Thomas Aquinas.
The Divine Comedy is a journey within and without, to the deepest parts of hell to the highest realms of heaven to the vision of God himself. You get the sense in reading Dante no word is superfluous, every letter has its place in a beautifully precise and organic scaffolding of art. The unity of his poetic vision and his ability to execute it, place him in the same rank of genius as Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare and Milton.
The poem is at the deepest level an allegory of the journey into the depths of the egoistic self (hell) to the beatific vision, where God is found within through the means of graced vision. While Dante may be read in other ways (he certainly was influenced by political, social and class concerns, so a Marxist and feminist interpretation is possible) his spiritual and psychological journey is just as important.
Dante is timeless, even if his view of the cosmos seems absurd and antiquated in our time when clearly there is no empyrean but only an expanding infinite universe of billions of galaxies. Still, if Dante were alive today, I doubt he would have any trouble incorporating our cosmology into a comprehensive vision, such was this man's genius.
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